An inventory of particle and gaseous emissions from large aircraft thrust engine operations at an airport

Abstract

Published particle number emission factors for aircraft operations remain very sparse and so far such emissions have not been included in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) databases. This work addresses this gap in knowledge by utilizing recent progress in the quantification of aircraft particle emissions. Annual emissions of particle number (PN), particle mass (PM2.5) and NOx throughout the aircraft landing and takeoff (LTO) cycles and ground running procedures (GRP) are presented for aircraft using Brisbane Airport BNE (domestic and international). The aircraft are grouped according to an airframe based classification system. The resulting data are then used to develop an emissions inventory for large aircraft thrust engine operations on the ground, during LTO cycles and GRP, at the Airport. Annual PN, PM2.5 and NOx emissions from large aircraft operations during LTO cycles and GRP at BNE were 1.98 × 1024 yr−1, 1.35 × 104 kg yr−1 and 8.13 × 105 kg yr−1, respectively. Results showed that LTO cycles contribute more than 97% of these annual emissions at BNE in comparison to GRP related emissions. Analysis of the LTO cycle contribution to the daily emissions showed that the contribution of the climbout mode is considerably higher than for other individual LTO operational modes. Emissions during aircraft departures were significantly higher than those during arrival operations, due to the higher aircraft engine emission rates during takeoff and climbout.